Gold Monetisation Scheme purely voluntary: FinMin

NEW DELHI: The Gold Monetisation Scheme is purely voluntary for individuals and institutions, and they can take their own decision to monetise the gold held by them, the Finance Ministry today clarified.

"The Gold Monetisation Scheme is entirely voluntary and it is for individuals, institutions and others to take their own decision to monetise the gold held by them under the scheme. The objective is to monetise the idle gold held within the country and promote financial savings," the Finance Ministry said in a statement.

The ministry was reacting to media reports that the government will intervene directly to monetise gold held by charitable, religious and other institutions.

"A good part of the monetised gold will also be made available to meet domestic requirement of gold. This will help in reducing our gold imports and save foreign exchange and deal with the problem of the current account deficit," it added.

Last month, RBI Governor Raghuram Rajan had spoken of the need for "some fine-tuning of the gold monetisation scheme".

Till November 18, the scheme had garnered 400 grams of physical gold. The country has over 20,000 tonnes of idle gold worth over Rs 52 lakh crore with households and institutions.

Gems and jewellery industry representatives last week met Economic Affairs Secretary Shaktikanta Das and discussed ways to make the scheme attractive.